Singapore Slung

Mike Kilpatrick
The Harvey Norman NZ Breakers scored a thrilling overtime 98-92 victory over a determined Singapore Slingers at the North Shore Events Centre in the Australian Hummer NBL Championship.

Big scorers in the game were Kirk Penney for the Breakers with a game-high 30 points and Rod Grizzard for Singapore with 25. Rick Rickert kept up his impressive rebounding statistics with 14 in the game to take his season total to 108.

The game ebbed and flowed, with Singapore in control for most of the first-half before New Zealand stepped it up in the second. A nine-point lead looked to have sealed the game for the Slingers, but a last minute comeback took the game to overtime.

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Breakers Prepare For Slingers

The Harvey Norman NZ Breakers are promising fatigue won’t be a factor in tomorrow night’s Hummer Championship NBL clash against Singapore at the North Shore Events Centre.

After playing one home game a week in the first month of the league, the second month has more than doubled in intensity with nine games, six of them off-shore.

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Marks Shines

Kiwi centre Sean Marks made his first oncourt appearance of the NBA regular season as the Phoenix Suns trounced Charlotte Bobcats 115-83 on the road.

The Suns were on top of their rivals from the start and lead by 22 points at halftime, allowing their reserves plenty of time to show their skills in the game’s latter stages.

Marks logged 16 minutes for 13 points (5/7 FG, 3/5 FT) and three rebounds.

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Wilkins' Weekly Honours

Christchurch Sirens forward Donna Wilkins has been named the Australian Defence Force Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) Nivea Player of the Week for Round Five.

The dual New Zealand international was instrumental in leading the Sirens to their first ever WNBL league win, tallying a faultless 15 point, 17 rebound, 4 assist and 2 steal performance in 37 minutes on court in a 77-56 victory of the Dandenong Rangers at Cowles Stadium in New Zealand.

The former Canberra Capital championship-winning forward was defensively outstanding, restricting key Rangers forwards Shelly Hammonds and Opal Michele Brogan to a collective total of four points for the match.

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BBNZ Cluster Camp

Basketball New Zealand will conduct the third and final Cluster Camps for the year this Saturday, November 10.

These camps form a key part of Basketball New Zealand’s player, coach and manager pathway, providing development opportunities for athletes, coaches and staff and a forum for identification on a national level.

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Canterbury Junior Entries

Canterbury Basketball Association is seeking entries for the 4th Annual Junior International Tournament (JIT) over Easter Weekend 2008 (March 21-24) in Christchurch.

The JIT attracts a large number of entries from around the South Island with teams using the tournament to gear up for the southern premierships, which are qualifying tournaments for nationals.

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National Team Sits Vacant

Basketball New Zealand invites expressions of interest for the following voluntary positions within its High Performance development programme …

Head Coach

Manager

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Marty To Coach Saints

Toby Robson, Dominion Post
American Doug Marty is set to coach the Wellington Saints in next year’s Dominion Finance NBL.

Marty will arrive in Wellington next Tuesday to start working with an extended Saints training squad and has provisionally signed on as the NBL club’s new head coach.

“He’s coming out here on the basis that he will be the Saints coach,” said chief executive Nick Mills.

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Nuggets Strike Gold

Former Harbour Heat standouts Brent Charleton and Nat Connell have signed with the Cartridge World Otago Nuggets for the 2008 Dominion Finance NBL.

Charleton (25), currently a member of the Harvey Norman NZ Breakers roster, co-captained the Heat to this year’s regular season title, contributing 12.2 points and 4.1 rebounds. Born in Canada, he set scoring records in his last year at Simon Fraser University and has played three seasons in the NBL - all for Harbour - averaging 14.4 points over 44 games.

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Ferns For Sneaky Peak

Still awaiting their fate at the hands of the NZOC selectors, the NZ Tall Ferns have accepted an invitation to contest the pre-Olympic basketball test event in Beijing next April 19-26.

Games organizers have assembled a strong six-team field of which the Ferns are the lowest ranked at 16th in the world.

Also entered are defending Olympic champions the United States (world #1), reigning world champions Australia (#2), hosts China (#10), Korea (#7) and Cuba (#8), the only country yet to qualify for the Games.

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Mitchell Takes Reins

Canterbury Basketball Association has appointed Gareth Mitchell as its new CEO.

Currently employed as pperations manager with the Central YMCA Qualifications organisation in London, Mitchell has a Masters of Science degree in Organisational Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts.

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Kiwi Hope On Sideline

Toby Robson, Dominion Post
A dream scholarship is threatening to turn into a nightmare for New Zealand’s top junior basketballer.

Dion Prewster has been sidelined since arriving at Iowa City High last month, ruled “ineligible” by the Iowa High School Athletics Association.

The Wellington 17-year-old’s new school is taking court action after being accused of using “undue influence” to entice the former Wellington College pupil and trying to build a “super team”.

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Sirens' Sweeping First Win

Geoff Longley, The Press
Defining moments of sports teams’ campaigns do not strike too often but the Christchurch Sirens created one at Cowles Stadium on Saturday, scoring their breakthrough victory in the Australian WNBL.

It was not just any sort of win either, it was a 20-point trouncing of a team that had beaten the Sirens by 24 points when they first met – a whopping 45-point turnaround.

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Tall Blacks Will Go To Europe

Toby Robson, Dominion Post
Basketball New Zealand is determined to send the Tall Blacks to Europe next year in a last-ditch bid to qualify for the Beijing Olympics regardless of Sparc funding.

BBNZ met with Sparc two weeks ago and expects to know whether the government’s sports funding body will buy into its pitch for cash later this month.

But regardless of the outcome, BBNZ’s newly appointed national teams general manager Grant Chapman said not attending FIBA’s Olympic qualifier next July was simply not an option.

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Barnes Perfect

Kiwi Kim Barnes made an impressive debut for UC Irvine as the US college pre-season got under way over the weekend.

The Counties Manukau forward was faultless from the free throw line in the Anteaters’ 108-66 win over Cal Baptist. Barnes had 14 points (2/8 FG, 10/10 FT) and four rebounds in 21 minutes.

Rotorua centre Te Awhina Aranui was also on song early with a pair of “double doubles” as Cascade College enjoyed victories over Walla Walla University (86-58) and Simpson University (81-58).

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Cameron, Blaze On Fire

Tall Black captain Pero Cameron helped Gold Coast Blaze to a 101-80 home win over Cairns Taipans in the Australian Hummer NBL Championship.

His 11 points (3/7 FG, 5/5 FT), five assists, four rebounds and a steal in 33 minutes sparked the Blaze, who are now 5-4 in seventh on the points table.

Fellow NZ international Casey Frank had six points (3/7 FG), three rebounds and an assist in 18 minutes off the bench for the expansion franchise, while Waikato Pisons import Jason Crowe had 12 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and a steal.

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Q&A with Jessica McCormack

GoHuskies.com catches up with one of the six freshmen on the University of Washington women’s basketball team.

Centre Jessica McCormack comes to Seattle via New Zealand and is a member of the Huskies’ top-10 nationally ranked incoming recruiting class.

GoHuskies.com: How does basketball in the U.S. compare to the game in New Zealand?

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X's & O's - University of Florida Offence

By UF Head Coach Billy Donovan

Pressure is the word that dientifies the style of playing of the Florida University, because we want to put pressure on both the halfcourts.

Our offence has always put pressure on the opposing defence thanks to aggressive screens and back screens, but also with the unselfishness of our players, always ready to make one more pass to have the best shot.

The aim of our offence has always been the team play, trying to create spaces and opportunities inside the plays in order to obtain possibilities of easy shots for all the five players.

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